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Puppy biting and chewing
A behaviour that is a completely normal process of growing, learning and a way to explore their world.
Puppies bite, chew and nibble due to lots of reasons.
Pain / discomfort / teething
Hungry / Thirst
Overtired / overstimulated / overexcited
Needing to toilet
Bored / frustrated
Exploring the world
Initiating play and social interactions
Things to avoid
Taking their food away, or grab objects from them.
Disturb when they are sleeping, eating and resting
Frighten or startle
Wearing particular items such as loose clothing, dangling scarves, fluffy slippers, things that might encourage your pup to bite.
Avoid reacting such as laughing or making high pitch sounds
Avoid squirting or spraying them with water
Avoid telling them off
Avoid wiggling and encouraging playing with your hands/ fingers and feet
Avoid playing roughly and notice if play is becoming too exciting.
Avoid hugging, squeezing them, one hand maybe fine to stroke them, but two hands maybe too much.
Management
Management is great before you bring your puppy home, removing particular unsafe objects and items that you don’t wish to be chewed, either popping them away or up high this includes your garden areas, removing unsafe, poisonous plants preventing being eaten or your favourite flowers being nibbled or chewed.
Set up areas of your home with stair gates and or a play pen/ foldable fencing to manage your home environment
Stair gates and play pens can create safe spaces, close to where you are, providing a resting place, with a variety of toys they can explore, chew and bite.
Supervise
Using play pens / stair gates allows both your pup and children to have their own space, supervision is always recommended.
Sleep
Set up quiet places for your pup to rest and sleep throughout the day. Puppies need huge amounts of sleep, between 16- 20 hours a day, an over tired pup will try and tell you.
Pain
Relieve your pups teething with some choices around a variety of textured chew toys, prepare in advance, popping some safe chew toys, or a rolled up damp towel into the fridge.
Play / explore
Enjoy spending time getting to know your pup.
Don’t feel that you have to rush, allow time for your puppy to settle into their new home with you as their new member of the family.
Enrichment
Favourite things your pup enjoys, sniffing, digging, licking, foraging, exploring.
Interactions
Sometimes a puppy or dog needs to process by initially sniffing their surroundings, including people, without being touched, stroked or being picked up, too many hands can feel quite overwhelming.
Plan
Create a daily check list to ensure your puppies needs have been met
Take note of certain times, is there a pattern when they start nibbling, chewing or biting, prepare, provide outlets and nap time in advance of these times.
Things we can help our pups when they are biting hands, feet or ankles.
Remove your hands and redirect onto something they can chew or bite.
Stand still and redirect using long tug toy, wiggling it along the floor.
Reward when aren’t biting your hands, introducing a nose touch game, cup game or calming enrichment activity with them.
Learn from your puppy, ensure their needs have been met, adding in a daily routine with nap times.
Reward the behaviours you would like to be see more of, show them by teaching, offer alternatives, redirect them guiding what they can do, ignoring your pup can often confuse and cause more frustration as they are trying to communicate with you.